Women’s water polo opens season at Cathedral Prep

Nash Greeven, Contributing Writer

The women’s water polo team started off the Laker Invitational with a tough loss to Bucknell, falling 22-10 on Feb. 16.

Maddie Nye and Mason Feldstein both recorded three goals and one assist. Sarah Hershey scored two goals and added one assist. Mackenzie Ryburn had one goal and two assists while Rachel Byrnes had one goal and one assist. Single assists were credited to Rachel Morris, Michaela Hershey and Lindsey Mizrahi. Sarah O’Keefe made one save in net and had one steal. Madison Maes also had one steal for the Lakers.

In the second game of the day on Feb. 16, Mercyhurst vs. Salem, the Lakers suffered a close loss to Salem 12-10. Maddie Nye recorded five goals and one assist while Sarah Hershey and Byrnes each had two goals. Morris picked up one goal and two assists while Michaela Hershey added two assists. O’Keefe made five saves in net for Mercyhurst (0-2).

The women’s team started off Feb. 17 with a super-close loss to Iona 10-8. Maddie Nye recorded three goals while Sarah Hershey had two goals. Mizrahi, Byrnes, and Morris had one goal each with Morris also tallying one assist. Michaela Hershey picked up two assists, and Isabella Morris had one assist. Michaela Hershey led the team with three steals. O’Keefe made seven saves in net and had one steal.

In the final game of the day on Feb. 17, the Lakers pulled it off with their first win of the season against VMI, with a Mercyhurst 7-6 final. Mercyhurst scored three goals in the fourth period, including the game-winning goal with one second left, to earn its first win of the season. Sarah Hershey led the way for the Lakers (1-4) with four goals and one assist. Nye tallied the Lakers’ other three goals and had four steals. Single assists were given to Michaela Hershey, Ryburn, Rachel Morris, and Mizrahi. Byrnes had five steals for the Lakers.

O’Keefe earned the win in net with 12 saves and one steal.

Assistant Coach Alyssa Diacono said, “the team had a strong intensity, and I was proud of the team’s improvement over the weekend.”

The Lakers are in the pool next at the Red Fox Invitational in Poughkeepsie, New York.  La Salle University, the hosting Marist College, Brown University and Sienna College will be the opponents for the Lakers in that tournament.

Catch the Lakers locally on March 30 at the Behrend Invite.